Harriet W. Wilmont

Harriet W. Wilmot, daughter of William and Harriet N. (Morrill) Ricker, was born in Topsham, Me., November 17, 1845. Her father was born in Maine, August 12, 1812, received a liberal education, and from the age of eighteen to thirty-three was engaged in school teaching every winter. At the age of twenty-one he moved to Topsham, and was identified with mercantile interests there until 1851, when he moved to Marshall county, Ill., purchased land, and in 1853 was joined there by his wife and children. He married Miss Morrill October 1, 1840, at Topsham. Eleven children blessed this union, seven of whom are living: Mary E. L., Lyman J., Harriet N., Samuel M., Willie C, Annie E., Susannah L, R. A., Timinicus, Lucy O. and Freddie O. In 1867 the family moved to Peoria county, where Mr. Ricker was engaged in mercantile life until his death, in 1878. His widow resides at Champaign, Ill., since 1880. Mrs. Wilmot shared the travels and fortunes of the family until 1863, when she married Asahel Wilmot, of Steuben county, N. Y. He was the son of Stephen B. and Betsy (Clawson) Wilmot. At the age of thirteen years he came to Marshall county, Ill., with his parents. In 1852 his brother, brother-in-law and himself crossed the plains to California, met with disappointments, and turned his steps toward the silver mines of Mexico, but would not be allowed entrance with firearms. Returning on foot to California, raised a crop of wheat, which was rusted so badly that he turned in a drove of hogs to fatten, but bears came and carried the hogs off. He then engaged in splitting rails, and in 1857 left the "golden land," coming home via the Isthmus, the Mississippi and Illinois rivers. He remained on a farm in La Prairie until 1861, when he enlisted in Co. G, Forty-seventh Illinois Infantry, and served at Shiloh and in all subsequent actions for fourteen months, receiving honorable discharge October 15, 1862. In the fall of 1862 he purchased eighty acres in Valley, and after his marriage with Miss Ricker, in November, 1863, settled here. After nine years he removed to his Chillicothe farm, but in 1878 returned to Valley, and died January 19, 1881, at his home, where the family still reside. Of eight children born to them, Asahel C, Lillie B., Ambrosia D., Fred L., Royal W., Clawson M., Ethan A., are at home; Willie R. is numbered with the dead. This large family has held an important place in the history of Stark for almost a quarter of a century, and since its youth the Wilmots and Rickers were known here.